Why We Must Listen to Syrian Refugee Women

Syrian refugee children.

Since 2011, Syria has been embroiled in a civil war. Millions of people have been displaced — the majority of whom have fled to Jordan and Lebanon — and over 220,000 have been killed so far, according to the organization Mercy Corps.

Like other conflicts, this violence has uniquely impacted women — a reality that the International Rescue Committee recognized and specifically studied. Their examination of Syrian, female refugees’ experiences was published in a 2014 report, which notes that of the 3 million Syrians who have fled for Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq or Turkey, 4 out of 5 are women or children. 60% of women surveyed expressed feelings of insecurity and 1 in 3 women said they were too scared or overwhelmed to leave home at …

A Gay Girl In Damascus: A Straight Man’s Hoax

A Gay Girl In Damascus

I had no idea what was going on as I listened to NPR in perilous rush-hour traffic a few days back: I almost drove into the black Suburban in front of me in my perplexed state. I marveled at the mention of both the Middle East and homosexuality in the same byline. Recently with the ironically named Jasmine Revolution, one only heard about the chanting droves in Tahrir Square in Cairo, and the unprecedented outpouring of filial devotion in barricaded hubs of so-called “national telepathy,” as a protester interviewed in The New Yorker put it. In the very same article, Wendell Steavenson describes the unique amalgamation of socially and economically disparate people in a famously stratified part of the world: